The present disclosure relates to memory access, and more particularly, to a method for assisting a memory cell in an access operation, a memory device having an assist circuit capable of providing a target assist voltage, and a method for operating a memory cell.
Static random access memory (SRAM) devices have become increasingly popular in various applications, such as communication, image processing and other system-on-chip (SOC) applications, which require high speed operation and low power dissipation. Reduction in the supply voltage reduces the dynamic power dissipation but renders an SRAM cell unstable. For example, low supply voltages reduce the static noise margin (SNM), which is the most commonly used metric for SRAM cell stability. When an external noise is larger than the SNM, a state of the SRAM cell can change and stored data is lost. In addition, process variations in deeply scaled CMOS technologies further degrades the SRAM cell stability.